Life-long Learning Process

What did I know about learning?
As a child I thought that I would stop learning something when I mastered what I was learning. An example of this would be cycling. As soon as I could cycle, then I did not need to learn cycling, I would simply cycle and cycle and cycle and enjoy cycling. Or, cooking.... where - at quite an early age - I only needed to learn the names of some spices, vegetables and some basic cooking procedures and then.... cooking became something that I enjoyed. Actually I enjoyed not just the cooking process, but the 'post cooking' period especially where, after people ate the foods that I prepared, they all poured compliments ... The learning process stopped there, while the cycling and the cooking continued.

Only later in life did I learn that actually learning never stops. My English learning process, for example, it never stops. It started years ago and it continues up to the present even after I have taught English for about 30 years (I sincerely hope that this doesn't discourage my students... their English teacher is still a learner of English ..ha...!!)

The life-long learning that I am talking about here is the learning to be a mother. I never thought about this until one day my daughter asked me in bahasa Indonesia which I misunderstood. 'Bagaimana caranya jadi ibu?' was her question, to which I answered 'Simple. Get married and have your own child!' And she said in English 'No, not how to be a mother, but how to be LIKE you.' And... that made me think....

I have learned a lot of things in my motherhood life. I learned that my two kids are different, each is special in her own way. I learned that I cannot use the same 'techniques' or 'methods' to solve the same problem with the same child simply because the problem occurs in different time. I learned that the same comment about the same thing may have different result with different child. So... everyday there is always something new to learn ... and I never know whether I am going to succeed. And the teachers? My own two kids...